The South African futures market tracked the JSE lower despite a higher opening on the Dow Jones industrial average. The all share closed down as emerging markets were hit by negative sentiment following rating agency Moody’s decision to downgrade China’s sovereign credit rating. Moody’s assigned China a rating of A1 with a negative outlook from Aa3 previously, citing the country’s huge debt levels as a major risk for investors. Statistics SA earlier reported consumer inflation for April came in at 5.3% year on year‚ which was lower than March’s 6.1%. The market had projected that it would fall to between 5.4% and 5.6%. The rand firmed to a best level of R12.9209 to the dollar on the day following the announcement. The Dow Jones was up a slight 0.11% at the JSE’s close. European markets were mixed with the FTSE 100 gaining 0.35%, while the CAC 40 had shed 0.24%. The all share closed 0.44% lower at 54‚308.70 points and the blue-chip top 40 lost 0.47%. Platinums shed 3.97%‚ the gold i...
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